1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to movable load support assemblies in general and in particular to such assemblies which allow the mounting of a storage unit such as a tool box or a camper onto a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been several prior methods of mounting a storage unit such as a tool box onto a vehicle such as a pickup truck. A first of these methods comprises mounting a tool box longitudinally on either side of the pickup truck bed. Even though a user of such a tool box has relatively easy access to the full length of the tool box, the utilization of the truck bed is severely impaired since the tool boxes must, by necessity, be mounted atop the bed side walls in order to avoid interference with the rear wheel wells of the truck. This impairs access to the bed of the truck from the sides due to the required height of the tool boxes. A further problem associated with this type of tool box is that they are generally not available as a removable after-market add-on device. Rather, when a user desires to acquire such a tool box, the user must either order the truck from the factory fitted with such a box or order a bare-framed truck and have a special bed tool box assembly fabricated for him, at a comparatively significant expense to the user.
In response to both a large demand for truck bed-mounted tool box assemblies and the disadvantages of the aforementioned design, a tool box assembly was designed which was securely positioned transversely across a front portion of an associated pickup bed. Such tool boxes generally have a top cover divided into two portions, each pivotally connected at a central transverse portion of the tool box and opening upwardly in a gull wing fashion. Because of the positioning of such tool boxes at the front end of the associated truck bed, and because of the configuration of the top cover, only a small portion of the tool box storage space was readily accessible by a user standing outside the pickup. That portion of the tool box storage space which lies in the middle of the tool box can be difficult to access whereby the usefulness of the available storage space is compromised. Further, the mounting design of such tool boxes did not lend them to easy removability from an associated truck.
Therefore, even though there exist tool box storage assemblies for use with small trucks, these assemblies have many drawbacks, including expense, lack of efficient usage of storage space, and nonremovability.
Other storage units have been developed which can be positioned on truck beds including self-enclosed campers, pud camper shells or covers. Such storage units can be difficult to remove from the associated pickup truck beds.
Heretofore, there has not generally been available a movable load support assembly with the advantages and features of the present invention.